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“We will too.”
I saw a woman who looked older than Miti also stand. She had a ball of fire in her hand as well. Slowly, others stood and likewise swore their coven’s aid to Miti and her quest to stop Pac’s army. But even more stayed seated, rooted to their seats, and I didn’t blame them. Who wanted to go to war? Who wanted to risk their own and their family’s lives for others? Would I risk my family for a fight that I wasn’t a part of? I thought about Millie and my parents and the number of times I had abandoned them because I couldn’t deal with the situation. As usual, shame flowed through me, and I felt my cheeks getting warm. But self-perseverance took over as it always did. If I didn’t stay alive, my family couldn’t love me, and they’d told me multiple times that they needed me. Clinging to this thought, which ran on repeat in my head, I left the meeting.
Bruno
I heard the door open and close, and with it, the sound of her heartbeat diminished exponentially. She’d left! My wolf immediately stood to attention, and this time, I couldn’t ignore him. I stood up while Miti was still talking. She looked at me with understanding in her eyes and looked toward the back of the room. I nodded and rushed through the door, only to come to an immediate stop when I found Lira not two feet away.
She was here! My hands automatically reached out to touch her, but I forced them back to my side. I didn’t want to scare her now I had her in my sights.
But something was wrong. She looked frozen and was hardly breathing. I slowly walked around her so that she could see me. My eyes met hers, and she stopped breathing completely.
“Lira. Breathe, sweetheart.”
I didn’t know if it was because I spoke or because I said sweetheart, but she bolted. And she was fast. But being a wolf shifter, I was faster. Catching her arm, I twirled her around to face me, but I let her go immediately when I saw how afraid she looked.
“None of this is real,” she said. “This is all a dream. A really bad dream that I can’t wake up from.”
“It’s not a dream, Lira. We have a connection. If we could just sit down somewhere quiet to talk, I’ll explain everything.”
“No,” she said, backing up. “I ran out of the meeting only to see that everything out here looks normal,” she said, pointing to our surroundings. “Everything I’ve been learning in the last year is as real as what I saw inside that building. This outside world and what’s inside that building, it all exists in the same world, and my brain can’t wrap itself around how that is possible. It makes me scared of what else I don’t know; what other surprises are in store. I don’t like surprises, Bruno.”
It was all I could do to not hold her tight and tell her everything was okay. My heart was breaking as I watched her fall apart in front of me.
“How is any of this possible? How can you look so human but—” She paused and stared at me, and I could tell there was a part of her that wanted someone to help her.
“I can shift into a wolf and back to a human?” I finished for her. That spiked her heart rate, so I changed tack. “I’m here, Lira, and we’re not in a dream. We need each other.” I didn’t dare move, afraid I’d spook her more, but I didn’t have to worry about me spooking her, because right at that moment, the doors opened and everyone poured out. The sound and the sea of people made Lira jump, then she turned and started running again.
Not wanting to scare her more, I stood there and watched her as she headed down the path toward her home. I let her go. She was safe in that house.
Lira
“You saw him?” Charli said, sitting across from me in the library.
I nodded.
“But you didn’t want to stay and talk to him?”
I shook my head. “It’s too much.”
“And yet here you are, talking to me about him.”
I dropped my head into my hands.
Charli didn’t say anything more, but she let me be, which I was thankful for. I couldn’t process it all. Charli helped, but she was so old that I questioned if she still remembered what it felt like to learn that you were a witch, not to mention that your great-great-grandmother was a ghost! And then, to top it off, the boy you’d fallen in love with was a wolf shifter too. I still couldn’t believe this paranormal world was real rather than in the books we read.
Being at the meeting today was uncomfortable, yet a small part of me felt as though I had finally found my people. That I belonged somewhere.
And then there was Bruno. A tear dripped down my cheek at the thought of him. He had been right there. I could have reached out and touched him. The look he had in his eyes had started thawing my heart, but I was just figuring out who I was; accepting that he was also part of this new world was too much to grasp.
“Here, have some biscuits,” Charli said, taking me out of my thoughts.
I took one, enjoying their buttery crunch when I bit into it. “How do you make these?” I asked her.
“I’m a witch.” She winked. “Even as a spirit, I can still do some physical things. Or at least tell physical objects to do what I want them to do.”
“Right. How soon I forget.”
Charli looked at me closely. “Have you had any more visions about that young man?”
